Facebook to launch ‘take a break’ pop-up warnings to help children spend less time on social media

Facebook has attempted to counter a growing public and political backlash by introducing “digital wellbeing” tools that enable users to spend less time on its apps.

Users of Facebook and Instagram will be able to create pop-up alerts to limit their time on the apps, block push notifications for fixed periods and get updates on the time they have spent on the social networks each day.

The changes, announced on Wednesday and to be introduced around the world over coming weeks, come amid growing concern at the potential damage excessive use of social media is having on the mental and emotional health of children.

Campaigners, however, said the moves did not address online harms like bullying or…